1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to managing, scheduling, and initiating conference room and/or conference room resources based on the type of conference. More particularly, the invention relates to the management of conference room presets that are associated with the particular type of conference.
2. Background Art
Anyone who has attempted to arrange a meeting with a busy client or friend is familiar with the concept of phone tag. In phone tag, one may try to reach a client, co-worker or friend to set up a meeting but forced to leave a message because the other party is either not in or on another line. Email does not often produce better results because the email messages may be received by an unmanned terminal or, while the inviter waits on a response from an invitee, the inviter is forced to cancel the meeting due to a conflict only to receive an acceptance from the invitee shortly thereafter. It is easy to see that those difficulties can grow exponentially when the inviter is scheduling a multiparty meeting or seeking to use resources simultaneously available to numerous other parties.
In an attempt to reduce these and other difficulties, a variety of calendaring and notification applications and utilities exist. However, along with the capabilities included in each are a number of limitations. For example, many web portals offer registered users the ability to maintain a calendar for their personal use. While such calendars are accessible from substantially any point from which a user can access a web browser and the Internet, such calendars are limited in that they typically may be viewed only by the party to whom they belong, i.e., the registered user, and they make little to no provision for configuring one more levels of access control.
Likewise, programs such as Microsoft Outlook® and Lotus Notes® offer a variety of calendar specific capabilities as well as a number of associated functions, such as the ability to organize meetings, including managing invitee lists. However, like their web portal counterparts, such applications are also burdened by limitations. For example, Microsoft Outlook® permits users to share their calendar with delegates. However, Microsoft Outlook® does not manage and/or initiate conference room resources such as conference room devices (e.g., projectors).
Moreover, these calendaring and notification applications do not communicate with the conference room resources. As a result, the organizer has to arrive early in order to prepare the conference room resources for the meeting. For example, the organizer has to power on the conference room resources such as a projector or dial into a conference call. Problems also arise when the conference room resources are not functioning. The organizer would waste time by attempting to diagnose and fix the problem. Problems that are not quickly resolved often require dispatching someone to the conference room. As a result, valuable time and resources are lost in many conferences while help is summoned, technicians are located, equipment power is cycled, and problems are diagnosed and repaired.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for managing, scheduling, and initiating a conference room and/or conference room resources based on preset information.